Tuesday, May 27, 2008

(click image for closer look)Those Kiwis are a bloodthirsty bunch when it comes to advertising gory American movies. This Kill Bill, Vol.1, uh, installation was apparently erected near a busy Auckland intersection to promote a local channel's screening of the movie. I'm assuming those are prop cars. (by Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand, via)

Friday, May 16, 2008

Link Haze, 5/16/08.

• Swedish Fish ads? meh. Swedish Fish delivery truck? heh. (link)• A recipe for wiener water soup. (link)• This BBC radio review of Iron Man is the kind of nuanced insightfulness missing here in the colonies. (link)• So, the GOP's fancy new party slogan is the exact same one used to market anti-depressant Effexor. (link)• Sorry I Called You Sweetie—a good emo band name. (link)• I was frantically looking for a screwdriver to gouge my eardrums out whilst watching/listening to this Home Depot training film. (link)• Gold Bond is breath mint for your balls. (link)• A true mystery: what is the Nasonex bee's nationality? (link)• Obsessive Star Wars fans could channel that energy into saving the planet. Instead, we get shit like this. (link)• You say 'Hello Kitty,' I say 'Goodbye Kitty.' (link)• Mixed media paintings by Ian Francis. (link)• Before sticking a flute up her hoo-hah in American Pie, a young, innocent Alyson Hannigan shilled for Mylanta. (link)• The DC Metro installs hopscotch and I Spy in stations in effort to stop people from hurling themselves in front of trains. Yeah, this'll work beautifully. (link)• Contextual ad oops, UK analog edition (thanks Mark Russell). (link)• Join the Navy. Get blown up. (link)• Red Bull gives you wings? How 'bout stabilizers? (link)• A short film: New York City pigeons having sex. (link)• craigslist ad of the week: "I have lots of imitation crab meat." (link)• I vehemently disagree with this Vice "do." (link)• I'd actually been rooting for Donny Deutsch and his TV show—until he took his shirt off last week (again), and said he could be NYC mayor if he wanted. (link)• Sweet Jesus, a Mr. Rogers porno is cumming. (link, via)• Finally, pants-optional CEO Dov Charney spotted on the LES, with murse. (link)

copyranter on ANIMAL NY: Skyy's sapphic sky sex.

French fight beach pollution by bleeding fighting G.I. imagery.

(click ads for closer look)The iconic Iwo Jima flag raising pic has been exploited from the halls of luxury jet companies to the shores of South Africa; in the name of global warming (see masthead), and now as part of a French beach cleanup effort called Surfrider. And! Since it's French beaches, Y&R Paris decided to also use a D-Day image. And that Photoshopped image (right, above) appears to be from the Omaha beach sector of the invasion, aka "Bloody Omaha," where over 2,000 American soldiers were killed (somewhat recreated in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan). The third ad of the campaign plays off of a jungle photo from the Vietnam war. So, is it OK for the French to exploit dead US soldiers, even if it is to combat pollution? Well, at least they get to fight another day, I guess. related:French exploit 9/11 to battle bad water; imagery of US soldiers exploited by India to sell Kama Sutra brand condoms; Marines can't use MySpace, commands MySpace using DofD.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Hey Park Slope? You got a logo, BITCH?

(click ad for closer look)MORE PARK LESS SLOPE. Jack "don't call me Jackson" Heights, Queens sticks a broken beer bottle right in the face of pretty Park Slope with this "Queens is the new Brooklyn" ad from today's Home ad supplement in the New York Times. And looky at that logo...A top hat! A beer belly! And he even jauntily dances to a jazzy tune at the JackHeights Website (which is sponsored by Queens realtor MPC Properties). Wonder what EDGY, Radically Chic/Chicly Radical Williamsburg has to say about this throwdown? No matter, it looks like we're just about ready for anotherround of The Unparalleled Hyperbole of NY Real Estate Advertising...

So drinking bottled water is like giving my car a blow job?

(click ads for closer look)Brita, maker of home water filters, has set up a Website to increase awareness of the environmental evils of drinking bottled water. To illustrate this evilness, DDB San Francisco created nightmarish ghouls spewing the blackest evilest liquid in the world (here's a third ad in this repetitive campaign). While I'm all for giving it good to bottled water companies, especially ones like Jana who hypocritically lecture me on the evils of plastic bags, I'm not sure showing crude vomit is the smartest way to get the message out. more bad bottled water ads: Perrier's shittier advertising (1,2,3); Fiji water—taste a cumulus?; Vitamin Water—50's packin' nutrients; and Fred water—suck on him all day long. update: Are the ads effective? Go vote your opinion in this online poll at PollsBoutique.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Link Haze, 5/09/08.

• This old A-Bomb brochure is just plain scary. (link)• Tropic Thunder, starring Black Downing, Jr. (link)• Two of the Sex And The City girls got to keep their clothes from the movie, two didn't. WAH! BOO-HOO! SEX AND THE CITY!!! (link)• More band names from Google news: this week's fave—Reeling From A Drubbing. (link)• Here are the other two print ads from the naked Brazilian woman campaign for Cabana Caçhaca rum. (link)• HRC has already said that Barack Obama has weak support amongst white Americans. So just how low do you think John McCain will go? This low? (link)• The stupid Mentos "Kiss Cam" has apparently been killed. (link)• In June, MindShare New York is taking its employees on a ghastly field trip to Six Flags Great Adventure in lovely Jackson, NJ. Fun Fact: I worked games there one summer a long time ago. (link)• These two Old Spice spots, hilarious. This one, blah. (link)• Of all the bad derivative plays on Got Milk? I've seen, this is the worst. (link)• Dabitch at adland made a birthday cake for Spam. Not that Spam. (link)• Some religious-right loonies are protesting the Starbucks mermaid. (link) Theiridioticadvertising, now there's something to protest about.• A Georgia state senator wants to ban pot-flavored candy. (link)• Don't make your drug deals on this Brooklyn payphone, it's tapped. How do I know? Because it says so! (link)• That's a monster of a fib in monster.com's diversity ad. (link)• This decrepit subway billboard is a piece of modern art. (link)• A UK telemarketer gets the reaming of his life in this hilarious call. (link)• Forgetting the snarkiness for a second, this story brought tears to my eyes on the subway this morning. (link)

I HATE HATE this Beetle ad.

(click ad for closer look)First off, I love the (old) Beetle. I drove a Beetle in college. It went 0-60 in never because it only went 55, and it took three minutes to accelerate to that door-shaking speed. But it never failed me. I'm not as crazy about the new Beetle, but a co-worker owns one and he says it's a fine car (it is ridiculously overpriced, though).This Beetle ad via DDB Barcelona is a classroom example of tired borrowed interest. And it badly borrows from an already grossly abused iconic image. In the classic 1955 film noir Night of the Hunter, Robert Mitchum, playing one of foulest characters in movie history, had LOVE tattooed on one set of knuckles and HATE on the other. And for the next 10+ years, pretty much every faux badass teen in America replicated the tattoos with a black marker (Actually, it's still going on today, except the goofy goth teens have no idea where the idea came from.). Even my dad, who was/is a real badass, did it. Anyway, to wrap this meandering up: though I like the lack of a product shot, the ad's trying too hard to be cool. It fails. related: Peter Stormare stars in funny VW GTI spots.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

(click ad for closer look)
Welcome to the return of a discontinued feature here on copyranter: Pure Horseshit. The above pic of fresh fragrant horse bonbons will be trotted out next to ads with claims that surpass the already high level of advertising truth-bendiness. Like the one for Mbellish pillows, above left. Puts you to sleep, instantly. Oh yeah? Are they filled with chloroform? And do they blow me first? "Mbellish" indeed. (ad via Saatchi & Saatchi, India)